Puritanism.- Vestments controversy.- Briefe Examination for the Tyme (A), of a certaine declaration, lately put in print in the name and defence of certaine Ministers in London, refusyng to weare the apparell prescribed by the lawes and orders of the Realme, first edition, black letter, woodcut initials, title a little soiled with margins frayed and small portion of restoration at gutter, a few ff. closely shaved, affecting some text and headlines, D1-D4 with restoration and repair to upper corner and fore-margin with some loss to text, light foxing, extensive notes to rear endpapers, ink inscription in an old hand to 2*2 "The solicitours of these orders were bluddy persecutours", bookplate, 19th century roan, spotted, rubbing to extremities, [STC 10387], small 4to, [In Powles Churchyarde by Richarde Iugge, printer to the Queenes Maiestie], [1566].

⁂ Rare. The vestments controversy was ostensibly concerning clerical dress but grew to encompass the notion of nonconformity in church practices. The debate reached a peak in 1566 with the publication of Robert Crowley's 'A Briefe Discourse Against the Outwarde Apparel of the Popishe Church' to which this is a response commissioned by (and sometimes attributed to) Archbishop Matthew Parker.

Provenance: Bt. at Egerton's, Whitehall, 1801 (ink inscription to foot of title); M. H. Bloxam (bookplate and ink notes); Rugby School Library (bookplate).